


strings & tethers

by firefall



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha-Beta Bond, Because Canon Didn't Do it, Canon Compliant, Exploration of Hayden's Experience As A New Wolf, F/M, Full Moon, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pack Dynamics, Teen Wolf Gen Week 2018, True Alpha Scott McCall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 00:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15473187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefall/pseuds/firefall
Summary: “You feel it, too, don’t you?”Hayden jumps in surprise, tearing her eyes away from Scott’s locker across the hall where he’s trying to pull a textbook out without knocking his tangled wad of hoodies to the ground.  “What?”“You need him,” Liam says simply, nodding over at their friend.  “Scott.”Hayden discovers one of the fortunate side effects of becoming a werewolf.  Written for Teen Wolf Gen Week 2018.





	strings & tethers

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because ya girl has watched Teen Wolf three times now and is still pissed off that we didn't get to see any alpha/beta dynamics (or really any interactions at all) between Scott and Hayden. So I took matters into my own hands.
> 
> Warnings for: nothing, really. Two cusses? Sure.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf and am not profiting off this work in any way. Teen Wolf and the characters belong to Jeff Davis and MTV and I'll be upset about that until the day I die.

Hayden almost kills Liam on her first full moon.

It’s like her senses are heightened and muffled at the same time, her vision blurred with primal bloodlust and animal instinct, the wolf coursing through her veins until she can’t find herself beneath it anymore.  There’s not a drop of Hayden left when she slashes out at Liam, his familiar scent filling her nose in a way that’s too overwhelming, too suffocating.  She wants him _gone_.

The chains around her torso don’t hold her, splintering the wooden post behind her as she lunges toward Liam, his yelp of terror sending a wave of sheer _power_ washing over her body.  She’s always been faster than him – even back in sixth grade – and it’s only a matter of seconds before she’s got him pinned to the ground, growling in his face.  She raises a clawed hand, eyeing his neck with dangerous hunger.

“Scott!” she hears him plead through the blood rushing in her ears and suddenly the night air shakes with a loud roar.  It pulls at something in her chest and she shies away from the sound.

Then there’s a hand around both her wrists and an arm tucked around her waist, dragging her off of Liam.  She struggles against her assailant, but they’re too strong and soon she’s the one on the ground, panting in fear when a red-eyed gaze bores into her soul.  She squeezes her eyes shut and flops back in submission.

When she opens her eyes, she’s Hayden again. 

Scott’s still bent over her, a hand on each of her shoulders and his eyes narrowed with intensity.  “You back?” he asks, tone surprisingly gentle considering the harsh lines of his body.  “You with us?”

Overwhelmed, Hayden nods.

Scott doesn’t let go.  “I need you to say it,” he tells her firmly.  “Show me.”

Hayden couldn’t resist even if she wanted to.  “I’m back,” she promises, the vulnerability in her voice making her cheeks heat up.  Then she glances over at where Liam has his knees pulled up to his chest, gasping in relief.  Hayden isn’t good at focusing her hearing yet, but even she can tell his heart is pounding.  She kind of wants to cry.  “I’m so sorry.”

But Scott just smiles.  “You’re okay,” he says, finally letting the tension drain from his body.  “No one got hurt.”  His hands are gentle when he moves them from her shoulders, pausing to smooth her hair back away from her face.  The soft touch has the pull returning to her chest, but this time it doesn’t make her cringe away.  This time it makes her feel whole.  Complete.

When Scott helps her to her feet, Hayden clings to his hand longer than necessary.  He doesn’t pull away until she lets go.

Going into the full moon, there had been lots of talk about control and anchors and shifting, but after the near catastrophe, they decide the best plan is to just keep her human tonight.  So Hayden sits wedged between Liam and Scott and desperately holds onto her humanity as Stiles crouches before her, taking her hand in both of his to try and coax her claws from the tips of her fingers.

“It’ll give you something to focus on,” he explains quietly and Hayden is struck by how calm he seems.  She can’t distinguish Stiles’ heartbeat from anyone else’s, but she’s almost positive it’s steady and strong. 

When Scott presses his fingers to the palm of her hand, Hayden knows why.  Her claws appear instantly, making her gasp in surprise and delight.  “Wow,” she whispers, awed.  She turns her hand slowly, watching her claws glint in the moonlight.  It’s the first time she’s seen them while still in her full faculties.  “They’re beautiful.”

“Someday you’ll be able to do it yourself,” Scott tells her and, suddenly, Hayden isn’t scared anymore.  Not of herself or anyone else.  Because the same boy that has Stiles’ back has hers, too.  It settles her like nothing ever has.

_-_-_-_

 

Now that Hayden knows what it feels like to be whole, to be complete and grounded and steady, she can’t stop thinking about it.  Her chest aches with a strange, vast emptiness every time Scott passes her in the hallways at school or rides off on his bike after classes are over.  Her feet yearn to race after him, to bring her close enough to touch, but she forces herself to stay rooted to the spot.  She doesn’t want to be annoying, especially after she almost killed his first beta.

So mostly she just stares a lot.

“You feel it, too, don’t you?”

Hayden jumps in surprise, tearing her eyes away from Scott’s locker across the hall where he’s trying to pull a textbook out without knocking his tangled wad of hoodies to the ground.  “What?”

“You need him,” Liam says simply, nodding over at their friend.  “Scott.”

Feeling caught out, Hayden quickly turns around to start fiddling with the combination on her own locker, face hot.  “Is that weird?”

“Nah.”  Liam puts a gentle hand over her frantic ones, stilling them.  She lets her arms fall to her sides – she’s trembling much too hard to get her locker open anyway.  “I still feel it all the time.  Just go over there and talk to him…he’s the nicest guy ever.”

She wants to do it, wants to just throw caution to the wind and ease the ache that’s been choking her for days, but the part of her that is still human and timid and weak has her paralyzed.  She turns wildly to Liam and hisses, “I’ve only been a werewolf for a couple weeks, Liam!  I don’t even know him.”

“I didn’t either,” Liam points out and Hayden knows it’s true.  She’s heard the story.  “But he’s the easiest friend I’ve ever made.”

“I thought you said he taped you up and dumped you in the bathtub?”

It shocks a laugh out of Liam, high-pitched and delighted.  “He’s better now,” he promises, eyes crinkled with mirth.  “He’s got all the alpha stuff figured out.  He’s not gonna tape you.”

Hayden wants to argue, but Liam takes her by the shoulders, turns her body, and pushes her across the hall.  Once her feet start moving, it’s easier to just keep going.

Scott’s walking away from them now, his textbook tucked under his arm, but Hayden chews on her lip in determination and quickens her steps to follow after him.  Just as he’s about to turn into his classroom, she calls out, “Hey, Scott!”

When he turns around, he’s smiling like he’s happy to see her.  Hayden’s instantly calmer.  “How’s it going?” he asks, stepping out of the doorway and motioning for her to join him.  Together they lean against the row of lockers.  Hayden can feel the warmth of him where their shoulders are just a centimeter from being pressed together.  “Is something up?”

“Not really,” Hayden says, feeling stupid now that she’s actually in the heat of the moment.  Then, for the lack of anything better to say, she tells him, “Listen, I’m really sorry about the other night.  I’ll do better next time.”

Scott stares at her in amazement.  “Are you serious?” he says, shaking his head.  He leans in close so he can whisper, concealing the conversation from human ears, “I’ve seen my fair share of new wolves on full moons – not a single one of them was able to bring themselves out of it so quickly.  You were incredible, Hayden.”

The wolf simmers beneath her skin, preening at the praise.  “Really?” she whispers, staring up at him in wonder.

“Really,” Scott tells her decisively.  “I can tell you’re going to learn fast.” 

It’s so overwhelming, Hayden can barely speak.  The tugging in her chest, now familiar and almost welcome, makes her hands shake and she hides them behind her back, curling them into fists.  “I—” she says, then stops.  “I just—”

“I know,” Scott says and then he pulls her into a hug right there in the school hallway.  It’s exactly what she needed – the shaking stops and the ache disappears like it was never there.  Somehow, wrapped up in Scott’s arms and Scott’s scent, Hayden feels more like herself than she has since being bitten.  There’s a string connecting the two of them and nothing’s yanking on it anymore.  “Go to class, yeah?  You don’t wanna be late.”

When Hayden sits down at her lab table next to Liam, he reaches over to squeeze her hand.  “Better?” he asks, smile soft.

“Yeah,” Hayden says.  “Much better.”

_-_-_-_

 

Hayden’s bedroom smells overwhelmingly of her sister and Liam and faintly of Mason and Corey.  She’s finally getting to the point where she can tell people’s scents apart, even the scents they’ve left behind, and while it’s an exciting development, the new skill does bring one unfortunate truth to light: her room doesn’t smell like Scott at all.

There’s no reason for it to – he’s never been to her house – but she feels the absence like a hole in her middle, tossing and turning night after night like her skin doesn’t fit right.  The string’s pulled taut and it _hurts_.

After almost a week of sleepless nights, Hayden breaks.  Groaning in frustration, she pulls herself from her bed and walks down the hallway on silent feet until she reaches the laundry room.  It’s a long shot, but Hayden still digs her clothes from the dryer and buries her face in her sweater from the night of the full moon.  All she can smell is laundry detergent and dryer sheets.  That’s what _all_ the clothes smell like.

Pathetically, her eyes flood with tears.

“This is stupid,” she mutters, annoyed with herself.  She rubs at her tired, watery eyes with trembling hands.  “Get a _grip_.”

But no matter how valiantly she tries, she _can’t_ get a grip.  Everything feels awful and she knows there’s only one person who can make it better. 

One person who’s probably fast asleep in his bed right now, blessedly ignorant to her strife.  She goes anyway.

Her new supernatural speed eats the miles up quickly and Hayden is barely winded by the time she’s standing on the sidewalk outside Scott’s house.  Back in her bedroom, chest aching around the emptiness, it’d seemed perfectly reasonable to show up at all hours of the night and knock on the door, but now she’s not so sure.  Mrs. McCall might call the cops.  Hayden wouldn’t even blame her.

She shouldn’t have come.

But as Hayden turns to head forlornly back home, every inch the puppy with its tail between its legs, a voice whispers from above her head, “You coming up or what?”

Scott’s sitting on his windowsill.

Hayden ducks her head in embarrassment, but takes the invitation for what it is.  Scott isn’t laughing at her – he would never do that.  So she scales the tree as quickly as possible and takes a seat next to him, their legs dangling off the edge of the sill.

“I shouldn’t be here,” Hayden says apologetically, looking down at her lap.  “It’s so late.”

But when she flicks her eyes up to Scott’s face, he’s rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.  Hayden thinks she can see the slightest hint of pink in his cheeks.  “I was actually coming to see you,” he admits and Hayden’s eyes widen in surprise.  “I was halfway out the window when you showed up.”

Hayden knows she doesn’t deserve to ask the question, not when she was literally crying into her laundry half an hour ago, but she can’t help the quiet “why?” that falls out of her mouth.  “Scott?”

“Derek always talked about what it felt like to be an alpha, especially one with bitten betas, but I had no idea how intense it was until I accidentally bit Liam,” Scott says, his voice taking on the wistful tone he often gets when talking about his old friend.  Hayden wishes she could have met Derek.  He sounds like a good person.  “It’s this really heavy, protective feeling – in some ways even deeper than the protection I feel for my mom or Stiles.”  He swallows hard, his face unsure.  It makes him look young.  “Is that bad?”

“I don’t think it’s bad,” Hayden says honestly, thoughtfully.  She shrugs.  “I think it just _is_.”

“Well, it’s really strong.”  Scott tilts his head, letting it thunk against the windowsill.  “It feels like I’m connected to you and Liam with some kind of invisible tether, you know?  One I can’t shake.  Not that I’d want to.”  He knocks his knee against hers.  “That’s why I wanted to come and see you.  I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I am now,” Hayden says and she means it.  Having Scott at her side calms the turbulence inside her and fills the empty void of her chest with warmth and _pack_.  “The string isn’t stretched anymore.”

Scott nods, not having to ask what she means.  But then he crinkles his nose.  “It fucking terrifies me, though,” he confesses, his gaze flicking to hers and then away like he’s nervous, which is ridiculous considering he’s the alpha and Hayden ran six miles just to be near him.  “I’m always afraid I’m gonna mess it up.”

“You won’t,” Hayden promises, wrapping her fingers around one of his wrists.  She can feel the beat of his heart beneath her fingertips and it’s calm and soothing.  “You _haven’t_.  Liam loves you so much.”  In time, she thinks she will, too.  “Plus, you saved my life and that’ll always, _always_ be a good thing.”

Scott’s breathing hitches for just a second and then he’s looking at her with big brown eyes full of care.  “I’m so glad you made it, Hayden,” he whispers.  “We were really scared.”

They sit side-by-side on the windowsill until the moon starts sinking in the sky.

“We should probably get to sleep,” Scott finally says, but before Hayden can feel upset about it, he adds, “You can have my bed.  It’s right… _here_.”  He tosses her a grin and flops backward through the window into his room, landing on the mess of pillows and blankets.  Hayden giggles.

She doesn’t argue when he grabs his comforter and stretches out on the floor, gesturing for her to take the giant bed.  She knows she should probably offer to take the floor or even just go home – it’s Scott’s own damn bed after all – but the blankets smell like him and it has her eyes drooping, serenity seeping into her bones like warmth on a cold day.

She falls asleep to the sound of Scott’s quiet breathing.

When Mrs. McCall comes to wake Scott up for school a mere three hours later, she barely flinches at the sight of Hayden curled up in her son’s bed.  “Beta stuff?” she asks, reaching down to ruffle Scott’s unruly hair where he’s stretching in the middle of the carpet, trying to get the kinks out of his muscles.

“Beta stuff,” he agrees.

“Good to see you, sweetheart,” Mrs. McCall says, this time looking at Hayden.  “Come by any time, alright?”

“I will,” Hayden says and when Scott smiles at her, there’s a gentle tug on the string.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
